A Don leaves only half the people happy each time and when u take them away it seems again only half the people are happy!

I just managed to get on the leaderboards this year for the dons and was making a sne run for 2011. Playing mainly dons.
Now hmm? Gonna have to grind something else. The playing field may have changed but the show must go on!
Grinders gonna grind !

Thank you cliff for being one of the players who understands the point I was trying to make...I thought I was pretty clear about how the two contrasting elements of the 50/50's make for a completely illogical format.

The 50/50 format is just way to exotic. And I don't mean exotic in a good way (as in an exotic island, lol).

I'm jealous of u since we don't have pacific anymore here. My don options consist of 3 sites while u have like 6 altogether.

+1

When u speak of everyone, u meaning all grinders yeah? You need to include the site in this too. At the end of the day they are still a business and not a charity. They giving many players 40%+ of rakeback already.
If they just made the rake 4%, the same as the dons. There would be less annoyed customers.
We ask them to think about us and be reasonable but that's a 2 way street.
However I would rather the dons stayed as they are my main game and I definately don't wanna pay 8% more (thumbsuck) per game in rake. Just the same as before.
DON's > f50 and $4> $4.32

Im wondering if the delayed removal is because they wanna decide on 5050s rake structure before removing DONs, to give the 5050s a good jump start right away.

can someone please tell me why there are TWO different 1 dollar buyin fifty50 games, 1 with .8 rake and another with .11

1.08 = 3 minute blind levels
1.11 = 6 min.

thank you, usually I dont ask stupid questions but I was almost certain they were both turbos

I thought sean said a while ago that he was done posting in this thread. Either way, his meltdown is entertaining

He did, but I think he's actually started posting more since saying that.

I can speak from first hand experience that losing your favorite game is quite frustrating. You invest a lot of time, get comfortable, and then suddenly have to scramble to figure out something else and the solution is rarely as good or better than it was before. I also spent a lot of time speaking out and fortunately my favorite cash games are back at Stars now.

For this situation, as I said before, I think DON's have too many problems and I think it's dangerous for poker players to tie up their livelihood into a game that is not spread at all poker sites or not even MOST poker sites. And, it's risky to have your livelihood invested in a game that is so prone to cheating.

Everyone should and will speak their mind, but threatening to leave in these circumstances just doesn't make sense and I doubt if more than a handful actually leave. Full Tilt doesn't offer DON's, so what's the point of moving there other than spite or just making empty threats? You can get better rakeback and customer service at Stars plus there are more players. You could try to find another site that offers DON's, but without the VIP program traffic, and customer support of Stars, is it really worth it?

If you were good at DON's and like them, my advice is to give the Fifty/50's a full chance from now until several weeks after DON's are closed. Even though the strategy and games are not the same, the same skill-set should be transferable to some degree. There's an opportunity to make more money in those as opposed to DON's where your winnings are always CAPPED. As much as I didn't like PokerStars' cash game changes last year, I still played on them for a month and gave them a full chance before I actually did leave for Full Tilt. If you end up not liking them, there's still tons of tournaments and cash games to pick from. Also, as I mentioned, cash games on Stars just got a LOT better with their recent changes, so now is a good time to get back into those if you're so inclined.

in the blink of an eye the Russians are everywhere, not just in DONs they are in 6max sng and in other places. It's insane all the Russians, Belarrusians etc that have just materialized. I was 4 handed vs 3 russ. Chip dumping was rampant so I just typed in chat box COLLUDERS game reported and POOF it stopped.

the point that riseagainst and other doesnt want to see is that the 5050 format allows even MORE COLLUSION. but, that will be a acceptable collusion since PS can defend thenself saying that it is a accumulation chip strategy. then they will not need to PAY the refunds, that right now is the same , since they are not paying the refund and still have TONS of lack detecting collusion.

those who think the collusion will stop when the dons die are really wrong, since they will just move to the 5050 or other game.

ps had other options to stop collusion.
a player pool with some non-random notes like: players from the same country or players with a lot of complaings would be sended to new pools. it would make collusion impossible, because with the time, they would take soo long to found a game, that for them would be impossible to play.

but no, PS prefer to change to a format that ALLOW collusion and ban one of the most popular games, so like this, they dont need to pay refund. the point why u see soo much complaing about collusion is because in DON its pretty simple to see when someone is colluding, since its blatant when they do. in other formats its not soo simple.

Seems it wasn't that hard to get rid of them... we have had similar stories of this on another site, particularly Russians/Lithuanians etc.

Ive even been accused myself in don games because some players dont understand tactics and when to fold big hands with a big stack etc.

Got a few points on colluding one:

1. Colluders never last, and are in the minority of players - they soon get caught out and reported by the regulars.

2. They are most of the time absolutely rubbish players - there has been times when 2 players have been dumping and still they lose.

3. Colluding in online poker will ALWAYS happen, NOT JUST IN DOUBLE OR NOTHING GAMES. As already mentioned, its in the cash games, don games and normal sit n go games.

4. When you see collusion happening, report it and get a refund - IMO the problem only really arises when this DOSN'T happen.

My main point in conclusion is that collusion happens in most forms of online poker, if not all... as such, i can't see a valid reason for chopping the don games, i really can't.

The majority of posts on here are from players wanting them to stay - if it wasnt broke, dont fix it. Although i don't play don on stars, i am very surprised by this decision and if i did play more on stars, i would be making much more of a fuss.

Magic.merny

Ridiculous. Can you guys please please please stop grasping at straws.

That's half the problem
I doubt very much the Russians & the like will just disappear they'll just gravitate to other formats too .. though granted DON's are probably their fav format , just like ours .

I understand Pokerstars have a decision to make & a business to run but just hope that they can see what a huge demand this format has built up , despite the few known added risks people take in playing them

But they'll not be easily replaceable & fifty50's are no substitute to attract anywhere near that type of volume .

I agree other sites are a no go (unless FTILT took them on)
Stars really has the traffic & the VIP program to make it worthwhile grinding but they'll really upset a large pool of players by this & hope they realize it

Maybe look again at Policing them pro-actively or a 'slight' increase in rake $2- $2.20 would be fair imo .

I agree other sites are a no go (unless FTILT took them on)

Could always move to Canada and play on the non US sites lol......

It now makes so much sense why rizeagainst is all for pokerstars getting rid of DoN's...You notice he didnt post any pokerstars statistics...he has everything to gain by pokerstars getting rid of DoN's...I know if i was a DoN player on cake or merge i would be all for pokerstars doing away with DoN's because it might increase my traffic. some people arent $5 DoN players rize so it hurts them more than you

afaik rizeagainst's stars name isn't a secret, it's 'ranci'. He's revealed it before in STTF.

lol 10k games 8k profit who would listen to that anyway....

ranci 12,623 $0 $7 2% $771 - 62 PokerStars

When are they getting rid of the DONs? RS03RS03 played some today

Holdem NL Turbo Double or Nothing Buy In: $1+$0.10
Entrants: 10 Date: 16-Feb-11 15:01 (EST)


Position Username Profit
1 kati19690112 $0.90
2 NIKOLAY$070$ $0.90
3 sgodelestero $0.90
4 ushastaya $0.90
5 VASIA222 $0.90
6 vss744 -$1.10
7 rs03rs03 -$1.10
8 shubeiko -$1.10
9 Torvold[34] -$1.10
10 Mimi_56789 -$1.10

Hmm that's unusual for rs03rs03, I didn't think he liked the DoN format very much.